Guardian of the Canyon
by Lord Faust
Summary: He'll do whatever it takes to protect that which means the most to him.


Was playing FFVII for the ten millionth time a few days ago, and got to the brief part of Red XIII finding out about Seto's bravery. As such, I felt like writing a fic about him, so this is my attempt. Hopefully, I did the great warrior justice.

* * *

"You're actually going to go through with this?" the already elderly for his age Bugenhagen asked him.

Seto grinned. "Well, of course. Why would I go through the trouble of trapping the Gi in the cave only to back out now? I just hope that the door you're going to seal it with is strong enough. And remember, please don't mention this to the future generations. This war needs to be forgotten...so our people can live in peace. They don't need to know of the strife we went through. You'll probably have to remind the others of this, too."

Bugenhagen said nothing.

Seto turned to look out the window, watching the fiery sun setting in the distance, the last one he would see. "At least this war is going to come to an end. Right, father?"

Bugenhagen glanced over at him before smiling. "Ho ho hooo! You've always called me that, haven't you, little Seto?"

Seto smiled at being called "little" one last time. "Of course. You _were_ the one who raised me after my father was killed by those damned Gi." He sighed. "And...and it looks like you'll have to raise another cub now. Tell me...will you please look after little Nanaki and his mother?"

"Ho ho hooo..." Bugenhagen became serious. "You don't have to ask."

Seto nodded. "I suppose that's true. Just thought I'd ask." He became pensive for a moment before scratching behind his right ear with his hind paw, knocking a hairpin from his black mane to the ground in front of him. "Also...I'd like for you to give this to Nanaki when he's old enough."

Bugenhagen picked it up. "But Seto, this is your Limited Moon! You're going to be outmatched without it!"

Seto chuckled. "I'm already going to be outmatched. Nothing can change that. Give it to Nanaki when he's old enough, alright? I had considered leaving a portion of my Cosmo Memory here, as well, but I think I may need it. Plus, Nanaki can learn it himself once he becomes guardian." Bugenhagen nodded slightly.

"At any rate, I suppose I should be off. I can't keep _them_ waiting, after all," Seto said, turning to exit the room.

"Seto!"

He turned, bearing the same mischievous grin he always had, looking at Bugenhagen. "Hey, see that Nanaki grows up strong, alright, father?" he stated, dashing out the door.

Seto padded down the rock steps, entering into the hole that had been carved into the canyon's wall. Stepping into the room carved into the rock, he noticed the entryway he would be taking...and the enormous steel door that would be used to seal the chamber. Some of the residents of the tribe had gathered to see their hero off, with Elders Hugue and Tariaq were mumbling soft prayers. Gazing out a smaller hole that had been cut out to serve as a window, Seto saw the Cosmo Candle, burning as bright as ever. He was filled with pride upon seeing people standing around it, offering their chants to the sky, praying for the safe passage of their brave warrior. He strode stoically into the dark cavern ahead of him, reveling in the respect and admiration his people showed him.

The metal door swung shut behind him and he could hear locking mechanisms being worked into place. He could vaguely make out an "Okay, it's secured, Seto. Nothing's getting through here," followed by a "...good luck." He immediately dashed forward, rushing into the depths of the cave.

He raced along, the sound of his paws on the rock floor echoing off the nearby walls. Ahead, he thought he heard the war cries of the Gi. Strangely, he wasn't afraid. He knew he was going to die, but the thought didn't really stick in his mind. He knew what he had to protect, and that gave him purpose, bestowing an odd sense of tranquility on him. Odd as he found it, he also chose not to question it.

Stopping on a ledge, Seto looked below. Though the rising fumes from the magma in the lower chamber made things slightly hazy, he could still make out the oncoming Gi. They were using the various stone walkways not yet eroded by the magma, and were approaching in the hundreds.

As the largest group of his enemies were confined to marching single file, Seto seized the opportunity to attack. He dug his paws into the ground and propelled himself forward, riding the steep slope to build up speed. Upon reaching the level ground below, he dashed forward, rushing the Gi on the walkway.

The speed he reached had given him a near tunnel vision. This was fine with him, as it allowed him to home in the man closest to him. The Gi let loose a war cry, but the screaming of the wind generated from his running made it nearly inaudible to Seto. As he edged nearer and nearer to them, flashes of blue energy began to emanate around his head. He focused on that energy, releasing it as he lunged into the first man and continued to slam into the ones following, sending them tumbling into the superheated liquid below.

Seto came to a sliding halt, glaring at the other Gi, who's attention he clearly had. His red fur bristled and he let loose a howl that resounded off the chamber's walls. "I am Seto, Guardian of the Cosmo Tribe. You aren't going to set a single _foot_ into that canyon!" he announced.

The Gi responded with series of loud battle cries, followed with a volley of arrows from both sides of Seto's walkway. He backpedaled bit by bit, timing his moves with the incoming tools of death. He leaped backwards at the last second, dodging the onslaught, not before having one pierce his right shoulder, however.

The initial connection of the arrow was painful enough, but it continued to sting afterward. On top of that, his shoulder felt heavy, an odd feeling, he thought. He looked back to see that his red fur was graying, some of the more protrusile hair breaking off. "_Petrification?_" he thought.

Seto jumped out of the way of a second volley, having all of them miss this time. The petrification had now fully engulfed his shoulder and was starting to spread down his foreleg. He was going to have to hurry.

He let out another howl, feeling the adrenaline surge through him. Seto leaped down to the walkway below and charge the Gi gathered there. Diving headlong into the group, he lashed out with everything he could use as a weapon. He struck out with his claws, gnashed out with his teeth, and even used the flaming tip of his tail when needed, to beat back the invaders.

Seeing the last group of Gi readying another volley of arrows, he caught a roar in his throat, allowing it to build up, then consented it to explode outwards. The force of the roar echoed to the roof of the chamber, causing the brittle sections of the rock shelf to break free, raining down. As the remaining Gi were crushed, Seto was made to dodge and weave as well, to avoid meeting the same fate, so much that he was forced to rush ahead, out of the chamber.

Entering the next area, Seto saw that it was more of a sub canyon. Thousands of stars were twinkling brilliantly, while the half of the moon he could see was shining brightly. Ahead, he could hear the approach of the next Gi war party. He hurried along.

The small canyon opened up a little the further he ran out. At that time, he saw the Gi party. This one was far larger than the one he had just finished demolishing, at least five times bigger. And they were marching forward. "_Damn, the first one must have been a scouting party_," he thought. "_Maybe this is the last of them._"

Seto stopped roughly a football field's length away from them, announcing his presence. "You filthy Gi don't know when to quit, do you? Doesn't matter, I guess. I just finished off your first party back there. You're next."

They responded with a group yell and charged, hundreds of them rushing towards the quadruped guardian.

Though the petrification in his shoulder hadn't spread any further, he could feel his right forearm going numb. Firmly planting his feet on the ground, he howled to the moon, allowing some of his energy to escape and collect slightly above him, forming a sphere. Aiming said sphere at his on comers, he released it in a searing beam, the narrow sub canyon giving the Gi nowhere to run.

The resulting smoke began to clear. Seto heard a resounding thrumming sound. Upon looking up, he saw a wave of arrows barreling down on him, screaming in the wind.

As opposed to backpedaling, he this time rushed forward at his enemies, attempting to dodge and weave through the arrows as they rained down. Though able to dodge the wave of piercing sticks, he didn't escape unscathed. Three of the arrows had found their mark; one in the middle of his back, the other two hitting in his upper left hindleg.

He howled out in pain, but didn't let it stop him. He continued his rushing assault on the Gi.

The Gi, however, had grown wise to the quadruped's plans. Though their numbers had been depleted greatly from Cosmo Memory, they were still great in number. In order to not get caught in that attack again, they broke into smaller groups, forming ranks.

Seto rushed to meet the first group, hobbling slightly from the effect of the arrows' poison. He stood on his hind legs to greet the first two men, grabbing their heads with his front paws, deeply raking his claws down their faces. A spearhead grazed across the right side of his face and he tackled the man, grinding his teeth into the man's throat.

He continued to methodically pick off members of the group one at a time, always circling around to keep them in front of him, even if he had to take an occasional scrape or two from a spear to do so. After taking out the majority of the group, the rest of them retreated to join with the second group, which had already begun to approach.

Seto glared at them. "_Damn_," he thought. Most of his back had been petrified now, and his entire upper left hindleg was stone. He had to drag it along now, as it was impossible to bend it. He let out another roar before the party reached him, feeling his adrenaline surge once more. He grinned at the feeling. "_I know I'm going to die...but this is too much fun_."

As the group assailed him, he lunged, headbutting the closest man in the gut, knocking back into a few of the other members. Leaping back, he called upon his energy once more. He reared his head, howling to the stars, drawing off their power as well. The collected energy manifested itself into seemingly star like forms, and began raining down on the Gi. Upon impact, the energy formed stars exploded, sending their pointed tips flying out like shrapnel, making them deadly even to those not in the general range of the explosion. Seto never moved, as the needle like points that hit him were simple reabsorbed; his own energy signature couldn't harm him.

There were even fewer Gi left now than the time before. However, these didn't turn and run; they pressed forward. In the gaps left between his opponents, Seto could see that the final and largest group was rushing to join the ragtag survivors of his onslaught.

He was forced to slide back, as leaping backwards was made impossible from the parts of his body that were now stone. He attempted to charge up enough energy to release another Cosmo Memory, but it was taking time. He had already spent a lot of his energy. The sphere wasn't at even one fourth of its size before the nearest Gi kicked him in the side of the head, interrupting him.

Seto was reeling for the moment, everything around him seeming to spin. His enemies didn't give him time to recover, either. The circled him automatically, striking out with their fist when needed, but mostly simply stomping him. One had the audacity to wait until he was standing before attacking from behind, stabbing him in the lower back just above the tail with an arrow he had picked up from one of his fallen comrades, causing Seto to roar in pain.

The piercing arrow was enough. Seto flew into a rage. He kicked out with his hind legs as best he could, knocking the man who stabbed him down. He lashed out with his claws to keep the others at bay as he took the flaming tip of his tail and drove it into the downed man's face. The screams echoed through the canyon. Seto left his tail there until the man stopped moving.

"Now that that's out of the way," he said, "time to finish the rest of you."

He wasted no time in launching an attack, a gesture the Gi immediately surrounding complied with. He pounced on the closest ones he could get to without being thrown off guard and swiped out at the rest with his large paws and flame tipped tail. He attacked in a blurring frenzy, continuing the trend for what felt like an eternity, before finally slimming down their numbers. However, they still had him greatly outnumbered.

Looking around, Seto saw that the canyon wall to his right, was not sheer and near vertical like the one to his left. Seizing the opportunity, he awkwardly leaped to a nearby ledge, using it as a start up the wall. Clawing frantically, he scrambled higher and higher, practically dragging his back legs along at this point. He was also forced to make straight leaps, being impossible to shift around in midair, as nearly his entire back had now been turned to stone.

Three fourths of the way up the wall, he partially lost his footing, causing him to slide down a few yards. At that time, he noticed the trap. Before the Gi had been demolished, they had considered that Seto may take an action similar to the one he was, and had planned ahead. When the group had been larger, they sent some of their members up the left wall where it became less vertical further back in the canyon. Now, on top of the cliff, they leveled their bows at the quadruped guardian and fired.

There was nowhere for him to go but up, and that wouldn't be fast enough. His assailants were already climbing after him, so he couldn't go down, and he would be pinned in place by those on the opposite wall if he didn't hurry. Seto decided to climb, as he didn't want to jump from the wall. It was a long fall, and he wasn't in the mood for suicide. Not suicide in _that_ form, at least.

He climbed frantically, his paws clawing ferociously for footholds. Scrambling as he was, it still wasn't quick enough to get completely out of the way. He was able to move out of the way of all the arrows but three. The first two to hit pierced first his left should, the second hitting him in his right, slightly above the first arrow to hit him there. The final arrow came down as Seto lunged forward, grasping for higher ground, piercing completely through his left hindleg, lodging itself there.

It was too much. His grip was steadily slipping. He dug his claws into what crevices he could find and attempted to simple stay there, motionless. "_Damn...they've really put me through the ringer..._" he thought. Stiffly pressing forward, another thought came to his mind. "_I...I said I was going to...see this...through...It's not...over yet..._"

He clawed his way up, struggling higher and higher. "I...am Seto...guardian...of...Cosmo...Canyon..." he announced weakly. "You Gi...are not...going...to...win... No matter...what...it takes...you...won't...win..."

He noticed that his shaky climbing was causing rock fragments to fall down on the Gi who were chasing him. This gave him an idea. With every staggering step he took, he tried as hard as he could to tear off bits of the cliff face, making rain down on those chasing him. Occasionally, the debris would collect or he'd be able to tear off a large chunk, smashing it into the ones closest to him. Looking across the canyon, he could see the other Gi party readying more arrows.

Finally scrambling over the top of the wall, he used its flaky edge to his advantage. Seto turned around, raising his nearly stone hind legs as high as he could, given the fact that his back was petrified, and stomped on the very edge, all while keeping an eye on the Gi across the gorge. He repeated the process a few times until that portion of the cliff gave way, breaking loose, and causing a rock slide. The Gi below had no where to run as the stones rained down on them, causing them all to fall to their death.

The remaining Gi were drawing their bowstrings, ready to fire. Seto stood on the jagged cliff edge, facing them. His legs had turned to stone, so he couldn't run, even if he wanted to. Seeing that they were ready to launch another volley of arrows at him, Seto collected all the energy he had left in his body. The sphere began to grow above the tip of his nose as the Gi aimed at him. He was spent and at his limit. Having all of the energy he could muster collected into the sphere, he fired off his Cosmo Memory, weakening the beam so he could fire it in a wide scatter shot.

The opposing side of the gorge was engulfed in smoke. "_I...I...hope that...that was...enough..._" was his thought as the petrification spread, having engulfed his body, and now working its way up his head. He looked up for a moment, gazing at the full moon beaming down on him and the millions of stars twinkling in the black sky. It had been said that each of his people were represented by a star. With each star sparkling brightly, he was reassured. Yes, his tribe was a strong group, they would survive. A smile traced his furred lips as his red fur became gray, the Gi's poison taking him, completely encasing him in stone.

The wind silently blew through the canyon, whipping the last traces of smoke away from the far side. There was no trace of the Gi, the Cosmo Memory having practically vaporizing them, its power going so far as to carve a large gash in the ground. The last wisps of smoke had drifted across the gorge, twisting and contorting, playing around a stone figure standing at the right side's edge. The figure of Seto, the great warrior, son of Cosmo Canyon, stood solemnly on the precipice, resolutely remaining at guard. The smoke danced around his petrified mane before being carried away on the wind, leaving the legendary guardian of Cosmo Canyon to remain at his post until the end of time.


End file.
